"Overall, all the objectives targeted by AHEAD have been successfully met. Joint research activities (JRA) provided the expected results. Many technology developments aimed at improving the scientific performances of the Athena mission. This goal has been successfully achieved in critical areas encompassing optics, detector and mission profile. Moreover, the innovation JRA has identified a promising innovative concept for application of the high resolution detectors developed in AHEAD outside the HE astronomy domain. The gamma-ray WP has been successful in clustering the gamma-ray community in focussing the scientific priorities and selected profiles for future mission concepts, now being developed by ESA and other agencies.
Networking activities (NA) concluded successfully. We have delivered a strong visiting programme, overbooked by the community. The numerous workshops and schools were based on issues of interest on a community that extend beyond the field, including the multimessenger Universe. They have provided young astronomers with the theoretical and practical skills to exploit current and future generation of facilities for large X-ray surveys and high resolution spectroscopy, in particular those close to launch: E-Rosita (2019) and XRISM (2022). The AHEAD public outreach programme has delivered excellent products with an exceedingly broad audience: video for planetaria, virtual reality videos (that can be watched by smartphone), social channels, press releases and educational material. The dome video on HE astrophysics received an international prize (Fig.3) and is being played in hundreds of planetaria worldwide. It has currently been viewed by ~25 millions people.
The two transnational access (TA) workpackages have offered access to 23 installations, of which 10 for data analysis and 13 for test and calibration, in 6 Announcements of Opportunity (AO). The data analysis program has been exploited by the community in line with planning. Access to experimental facilities ramped up and reached a broader community, thanks to the implementation of more flexible procedures and wider dissemination: 50% of the approved proposal were received by SMEs and 50% of the projects encompassed fields such as astro-particle, Earth observations and space debris. In summary the organisation of a joint AO call for all transnational and visiting programmes supported 143 persons for a total of 1108 days.
Dissemination of the AHEAD project results was very effective, this including spreading info via web pages, presentations to conferences, and about 110 articles published in journals, including a special issue of the journal “Experimental Astronomy"" (Fig.2).
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